You could do a 2/2 split with Bomb and Powder Keg. I just prefer that Ratchet Bomb can get rid of Oath which I feel is more of a threat than man lands.

Rishadan Port is another sphere effect. Being a prison style deck, we want as many as possible especially after restrictions. Try it on their upkeep. Use the stack to your advantage and have Port resolve after Smokestack, or before Tangle Wire so you can make sure a creature gets tapped. Good on man lands too.

Karn turns your Smokes, Tangles, and Crucibles into a nice clock.

MUD's main advantage is it's consistency, so I prefer to use as many 4-ofs as I can to achieve this. If I'm putting a singleton card in a MUD deck, you better believe it's because it's restricted.

Bazaar is cute and situationally good , but it's never been amazing outside of UbaStax when put in a Workshop deck from my experience.

Thanks for sharing your list! I am a relatively new acolyte of the Church of Stax, and admittedly have a ton to learn.

I just made the immensely wise decision to spend real money to lease digital Rishadan Ports. I'll try them out in upcoming leagues and see how they fare.

Variants of my above list have continued to be ok. The list breaks at least even with the most represented archetypes except Oath. The Oath match-up is sickeningly abysmal. I am not sure if, or how, it can be solved; if I continue to crash and burn against it I may take a break from the Stax archetype. The Leovold matchup is similarly rough after Game 1; there are just so many two-for-ones.

Regarding Ratchet Bomb and Powder Keg, I think I'd be more likely to use a 3-1, rather than 2-2, split. The biggest reason I prefer the split at all is to mitigate Revoker. The bonus of handling man lands (men land?) is merely a tangential bonus in my eyes. Revoker on Ratchet Bomb has come up often enough that I believe the split is close to essential. Without a way to deal with Hangarback Tokens, Smokestack gets tough to leverage against Shops in my experience (especially in those long games that are so common with this archetype).

Also, I've found Bazaar to be necessary in lists with Ensnaring Bridge. The match-ups where Bridge shines brightest are Shops and Dredge, both of which put on fast pressure. Getting my hand clogged with lands is real, and I often cannot win without Bazaar to lower my hand-size in time. In any case, with Bridge out of the picture, I agree with you.

@senor_bisquick Cool, I think you'll like the Ports. A very underrated and underplayed card in my opinion when it comes to Stax. Let me know how they work for you. Just remember to stack them optimally during upkeeps.

Hmm if Oath is that much of a pain is there a reason you don't want the 4th Smokestack? If i can get an early Smoke online, I'm pretty happy sacrificing orchard tokens. And it's not like we run a ton of creatures. A late game Karn can be used as a finisher if you have enough artifacts to swing for the kill.

I've been trying out the Ports on MTGO. They have performed well so far, especially with the sharp up-tick in sorcery-speed removal (most notably By Force and Energy Flux). I've warmed up again to Tangle Wire again for the same reason.

I'd recommend trying Sorcerous Spyglass. It has merit in almost all matchups and has good synergy with Port to boot. When the opponent has fetch lands in play, Port doesn't do much. Playing Spyglass forces your opponent to crack their fetch land in response, which turns on Port.

I've dropped Chalice and haven't looked back. I often don't want to play it at 1, and it doesn't pair well with the Ratchet Bombs and Powder Keg.

Also, Inventor's Fair is fantastic. I'm not sure I would ever cut that card. The life-gain mitigates Tomb damage, slows aggro, and I use it for tutoring more often than you'd expect.

I just 4-1ed a league with the below list, and top-8ed a local Vintage event last weekend. The archetype doesn't seem totally dead. Have you had the chance to test your list?

Sideboard:

Yeah, using Port in between Stax and Tangle is pretty good. I've always been a fan.

How are you liking no metamorphs in the maindeck? I always preferred them in the sb.

I like that Spyglass is proactive as well as reactive. Sure would have been great if it had legs. I'd run it, but then I wouldn't have very many win conditions left in the deck. Truly missing those extra 3 Lodestones....

I'm back and forth on Expedition Map really. Sometimes it's amazing, and then sometimes it's just clunky. It seems great in your list since you run utility lands. The only singletons I use are Tolarian Academy and Strip Mine. I'm running a similar land count as you (22) and kinda want them all. I love rarely having to mull.

I don't think the lone Chalice will make or break the deck to be honest. But I'll still keep the dream alive because on turn 1 it prevents permanents hitting the board and has a huge impact on the game.

I'm testing out a more proactive card and it's doing surprisingly well in Stax. Not sure why I haven't really tried it before. Once I see some more results I will share my findings. Might be a tournament I want to take it to first ;)

It's funny, I actually miss Metamorphs in the main deck and tended to sideboard them out. The reason I ultimately dropped them is the same reason I sided them out of the main deck--playing them after game 1 opens up the opportunity for big blow-outs due to removal. I kept running into situations where I would play a Sphere turn one, and Metamorph turn two, to which the opponent would respond with something like Ancient Grudge or Smelt on the Sphere.

Expedition Map has been amazing for me and the utility lands are a big reason for that. But before your suggestion of Ports, I was becoming ambivalent about them too. However, adding the Ports meant having more lands to get to the activation cost which made Maps much better. The two synergize as well, since the Ports and Maps both put pressure on the opponent's lands.

Of course, the biggest liability for Map is Misstep. For that reason, I tend not to play it in the early game against decks that have Misstep. But that's ok, because Map generally shines in the mid to late game. By that time, opponents have either pitched their Missteps, discarded them, or can't afford them through Spheres, Tangle Wires, Ports etc.

I've gone a total of 17 - 4 across three leagues and the P9 challenge with the above list (with a change here and there). Missed out on the top 8 yesterday by losing in a super-close, grindy final match in the swiss, and then was eliminated on tie breakers.

How do y’all feel about tanglewire? I’ve always been fond of the card but because of how aggressive ravager MUD is along with how fast PO decks are, I feel like I’m better off dropping the tanglewires for either more null rod, ensnaring bridge, or damping Sphere.

Generally, Expedition Maps for me have been expensive, colorless sinkholes, although I also use them for acceleration frequently to enable early plays. With all the basics around these days, getting a Strip Mine has often been game-breaking with or without Crucible. They are also an excellent enabler for Karn via getting Tolarian Academy.

Expedition Map for me reads target 65% of the field discards an otherwise useless Skillstep. I boarded a map or two in matches where Null Rod is bad, in those matches map is good. I also played Dunes both at Gencon and at Champs. It's OK, has a high ceiling with stack but is also and awful Wasteland target for your opponents.

It's admittedly painful to turn on missteps game one, but I feel like people are ignoring 66% of the games here. Once you get to game two, no reasonable anti-Workshop plan includes Missteps. Somehow convincing your opponent to keep Missteps in their deck probably helps you more than getting one for one'd hurts you.